Cider!

[AFS1970]

At the talk on cider history I wrote about he mentioned that the orchard that gave him the unpasteurized cider normally only sells that for a single weekend and only to home brewers that are already on their mailing lists. He did say you could brew a cider with the pasteurized kind as it still had sugar, but it did not come out as good.

One unintended benefit to the lecture being at a beer event was that most of the audience only tried the small samples politely and didn't even finish. Thus the staff was handing out additional samples throughout the lecture, of which I had many. Then at the end while talking to the lecturer about cider and his reenactment regiment he mentioned that he did not intend to bring home open kegs, so there was more pouring and enjoying.

If you want to learn about interesting brews and taste things you might never buy, festivals are the way to go.

[JohntheBiker]

A facinating thread with a lot of advice on making and drinking as well as a few options to potentially avoid. Since most pubs don't carry gluten free beer, cider, ideally on draft, has become a viable option for a beverage by the pint. In my neck of the woods, you can almost always get Magners or Strongbow.

[Hopper250]

Here in the Twin Cities, there are only a couple of place to get cider on tap, at least bottles are more frequent. You can sometime get gluten free beer at the same places that carry cider on tap.

[James Hood]

'Discovered Strongbow in England, excellent, bold.

Fave USA ones are the varied flavours of Woodchuck. Rather suburban but fun.

In Frankfurt, 'was steered to Possman's Apfelwein. Amazing, a refrigerator staple

[Pleater]

In the current heatwave I go out and water the garden and murmur encouragement to the apples growing on my trees, along the lines of hanging on and growing larger and drawing in all that good sunlight made carbohydrate.

It really is the weather for a tall glass of light cider with the condensation running off due to the coldness of the contents, drunk under the shade of the apple trees.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Ozark Ridge Rider]

If you ask for cider here in New England you are likely to get a glass of unfiltered apple juice. "Hard" (fermented) cider is a bit of a niche beverage... there are a few brands with a fairly wide distribution (Woodchuck, Angry Orchard, Hornsby's) but they're all filtered and too carbonated for my taste buds. The best widely-distributed cider I've found in the US is JK's Scrumpy Cider - it's unfiltered and not fizzy (I believe that's what 'scrumpy' means) and absolutely delicious.

Harpoon in Boston makes a pretty good one. It's my impression it isn't filtered, but am not sure.

[StevieR]

Talking of unfiltered, sat in the garden on a lovely day drinking Addlestones Cloudy premium English cider, 5% abv and intriguing (according to the tasting notes, at least) listening to "Test Match Special" on the radio. Happy days!